De Zerbi hints at another bomba as Spurs' rebuild continues
Tottenham’s summer of excess is not over yet. Not if Roberto De Zerbi has anything to do with it.
Having already shattered their transfer record twice in a matter of weeks, the Spurs head coach insists there is more to come, teasing what he called “another bomba” in the market and painting himself as “like a shark” when he locks onto a target.
This is not the language of a man easing himself into a new job. It is the language of a coach intent on reshaping a club at speed.
Record fees, ruthless intent
Tottenham have moved aggressively. First came Mateus Fernandes from West Ham for £85 million, a deal that reset the club’s financial ceiling. Then they went higher still, striking an agreement with Newcastle for Sandro Tonali in a package that could climb to £100m.
Those two signings alone would normally define a window. At Spurs, they are merely the headline acts.
Jan Paul van Hecke has arrived from Brighton to bolster the defence. Andy Robertson and Marcos Senesi have been added on free transfers, smart business layered on top of the blockbuster outlay. There has also been firm noise around interest in Brazilian winger Savinho at Manchester City, a potential injection of pace and flair out wide.
This is a squad being torn up and reassembled in real time.
“We have another bomba”
De Zerbi is not pretending the work is close to done.
“The transfer market, it’s not finished for sure,” he said, speaking to The Athletic. “We have completed 60% of our project in the transfer market. Now we have another bomba.”
The word has become part of the modern transfer lexicon, a social media staple for a sudden, dramatic deal. De Zerbi knows exactly what he is doing by using it. He is feeding a fanbase already intoxicated by the scale of the club’s spending.
Asked whether this “bomba” is close, he did not bite fully, but he did not cool expectations either. “I hope, but it’s not finished, for sure.”
The message is clear: Spurs are still hunting.
“Like a shark” in the market
If his transfer policy needed a slogan, De Zerbi provided one himself.
“In the transfer market, when I want one player, I become like a shark,” he said. “No chance to say no.
“I love working in the transfer market. It’s not pressure, it’s one of the nicest parts of my work, my job.”
There is an edge to that description. A shark circles, waits, then strikes. De Zerbi is casting himself as the relentless figure at the heart of Tottenham’s rebuild, not a passive observer while the recruitment department gets to work.
It also underlines how central this window is to his broader “project”. By his own calculation, Spurs are just over halfway to where he wants them to be in terms of squad construction. That leaves a sizeable 40% still to be done, whether in this window or the next.
A club braced for the next hit
All of this unfolds against a backdrop of on-field preparation. Tottenham needed a penalty shootout to edge past Sydney FC in a preseason friendly, a reminder that chemistry lags behind recruitment when a squad is being rebuilt this quickly.
De Zerbi has already been firm on internal matters, notably around the future of highly rated youngster Bergvall, insisting he does not want to persuade any player to stay against their will. The stance is consistent with his transfer rhetoric: Spurs will be defined by those who fully buy into his vision.
For now, though, the intrigue centres on that looming “bomba”. Tottenham have already thrown huge money at their new era. The head coach is promising at least one more jolt to the system.
The shark says he has not finished feeding.
